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Friday, July 5, 2013

How to use QR codes in your Project Life pages

One thing that I love to do in my project life pages is add little video's using QR codes. It's a fun way to tell more of a story other than just a static photo and words. I've done it quite a few times and every time I show it on Instagram I get asked how its done so here is a quick tutorial of my process. I'm sure there are tons of other ways to do it but this is what I have found to be the quickest for me.

Since I tend to shoot all my videos on my phone it makes the process that much easier to do. If I decide to use a video I took in my pages I just head to my camera roll and within minutes I have a QR code ready to go.

3. If you don't have a YouTube account, you'll need to create one. Once that's done and you've logged in you'll see this screen. Here is where you want to name your video, just so you can find it later.

As you scroll down thru the initial upload screen you'll see the area where you'll select the privacy for your video. The default for your video's privacy is always set at Public. If you have no issues with that by all means leave it alone but if your like me and don't want randoms looking at your videos then by all means change it. There are two options, Unlisted allows others to watch if they have been given the URL, Private can only be viewed by the account holder.

4. I tend to always change mine to private, again personal preference. This however will mean that the only way to view this video with a QR code reader is with the device of the account holder, meaning from my phone only. This may seem excessive but in case I ever have my album on display when I'm not there to monitor who's looking at it, they won't be able to click on my videos.

5. Once the video is uploaded you'll want to head over to YouTube and log in to your account. In the upper right hand corner you'll see your account name, using the pull down you'll want to select Video Manager.

6. There you will see a list of all of your videos you have uploaded.

7. Select the video you want and find the share button.

8. Click on share and you'll see the URL area populate. Right click and say copy.

9. Open another window and go to this website to generate the QR code. In the very first box select the pull down and choose URL.

10. Delete everything showing in the URL slot and paste in what you copied from YouTube and then select the Generate button.

Note: I typically leave the Barcode size as Large because I like to have the largest possible one to then modify as needed in Photoshop Elements. When you select Large size barcode you will get a code that is 5 inches square, Medium generates a 3.25 inch square and Small generates one a bit smaller than 1.75 inches square.

11. Once you hit generate, over on the right hand side you will see your QR code. I then hover over the code, right click my mouse and hit "Save Picture As" and save it to my desktop.

12. The file type will be generated as a .png file but you can open the file and print it or drag into Photoshop Elements to create your own insert card.

Here is an example of one that I made most recently of my first Instagram video.

I hope this tutorial helps, if you have any questions please let me know.

I just tried this awesome technique but I am having trouble viewing the video when I scan the code. I published as private & that is the message I am getting when I scan the code. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

If you publish as private you have to be logged in to the same account you uploaded the video to on youtube especially on someone else's device. It will only play on your account. Other than that I'm not sure why it wouldn't play from your phone, it has always worked for me.